Candidate wants challenges probed (March 7, 1986)

Cook County-State's Atty. Rich- ard Daley will be asked to investi- gate challenges to about 1,500 voters in the Near Northwest Side 26th Ward, an can- didate vowed Thursday. Candidate Manuel Torres charged his oppo- nent, Luis Gutierrez, with "using a

law designed to clean up the poll list to disenfranchise voters." Torres said Gutierrez's organiza- tion had incorrectly made personal challenges to the registration of 1,500 persons, many of them Torres' supporters, and had their names removed from voter lists. Torres, endorsed by the regular Democratic organization, filed with the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners several affidavits from voters who alleged they were wrongly removed from the rolls. Gutierrez acknowledged that his organization, which had canvassed the ward to check voter eligibility, was responsible for removing nearly 1,500 names from the regis- tration rolls, but said they were "ghost voters," people who no longer resided at their listed ad- dresses. Torres said he plans to ask Daley to investigate.